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Do black lives in Africa matter?

Do black lives in Africa matter?

No nation in Africa is receiving more attention right now than Wakanda. And why not since, as Anthony Lane writes in The New Yorker, Wakanda is “a model of serenity,” that also is “wisely ruled,” in addition to being “an unplundered homeland, blooming from liberty rather than from bondage.”

Of course, one answer to that question might be that Wakanda is a figment of the imagination, the fictional birthplace of the “Black Panther,” superhero of the eponymous motion picture that reviewers in the mainstream media have been praising to the skies.

A second possible answer: In real African countries, terrible things are happening. For example, last week in Dapchi, in northeast Nigeria, armed gangs of men stormed through 15 villages massacring Christians, destroying their churches and ransacking their villages.

Toronto Star columnist Tarek Fateh pointed out that these atrocities “could not find space in any major newspaper or TV network other than the Daily Express in the U.K.”

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Those attacking were Muslims of the Fulani ethnic group. Their Christian victims were mostly Tivs. Many Fulanis are nomadic cattle herders. Tivs are mostly settled farmers. Fulanis see no good reason not to graze their cattle on Tiv lands, even if that destroys Tiv crops. So this conflict is not only about religion. That makes it no less lethal but it does make it easier for journalists to ignore.

Meanwhile, however, and in the same general region of Nigeria, members of Boko Haram — a group unambiguously motivated by religion — last week seized a girls school. At least 100 students are now missing, presumed kidnapped, enslaved and soon to be “married” to Boko Haram jihadists.

Four years ago, you may recall, 276 girls were abducted from Chibok, a village in the same region. That led to the highly publicized but ineffectual #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

“Whatever happened to #BringBackOurGirls?” Christopher Dickey, the Paris-based foreign editor of the Daily Beast tweeted in regard to the latest abductions. “The lack of international interest in this case reflects the fickle character of the news cycle.” Yes, that. But perhaps it reflects more than that?

Boko Haram has slaughtered thousands of people, including 900 Nigerians last year, “marginally more” than in 2016, according to the BBC. It increasingly deploys women and children as suicide bombers, preserving its able-bodied men for more conventional combat. Its terror has spread into neighboring Cameroon and Chad as well.

Three years ago next month, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State which, though recently defeated in much of Syria and Iraq, remains as active as ever in Africa. My colleague, Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), reports that in Niger, former al Qaeda commander Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui leads a group that has “fought in the caliphate’s name since 2015.”

Last October, that group claimed responsibility for killing four American and five Nigerien soldiers. Another Islamic State franchise dominates the northern Puntland region of Somalia in the Horn of Africa.

In Mali, in West Africa, an al Qaeda affiliate killed two French soldiers last week. In that country and surrounding lands, Mr. Joscelyn notes, al Qaeda has become “especially prolific.” At least 22 Malian soldiers were killed in five separate raids in north and central Mali last month alone. Jihadist terrorism also has seeped into neighboring Burkina Faso.

The International Crisis Group warned last year that the entire Sahel, the vast and impoverished region south of the Sahara, “remains on a trajectory toward greater violence and widening instability. Jihadists, armed groups and entrenched criminal networks — sometimes linked to national and local authorities — continue to expand and threaten the stability of already weak states.” Not just al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), but also Ansar Eddine and al-Mourabitoun appear to be strengthening.

In a report published this week, “Evolving Terror: The Development of Jihadist Operations Targeting Western Interests in Africa,” FDD senior fellow Daveed Gartenstein-Ross confirms that assessment. “The threat that jihadist groups in Africa pose to Western interests has grown over the past decade,” he writes, “as groups operating in North Africa, the Sahel, West Africa and the Horn of Africa have honed their capabilities.”

He and his fellow researchers cite 358 “successful, thwarted, or failed attacks” against Western interests in these regions between January 2012 and October 2017 – triple the number between January 2007 and December 2011. Perhaps more consequentially, African terrorists are learning and innovating. “Jihadist operations have generally become more sophisticated,” the report concludes.

The media show little interest in these bloody developments. Those enthusing over the heroism of the Black Panther and the charms of Wakanda appear entirely oblivious.

In his Vox review, Tre Johnson calls the film an “opportunity to celebrate everything from Afrofuturism to the natural hair movement.” He adds: “Wakanda has emerged as a vision of what’s possible.” Those with the vaguest notion of current African reality know that’s utter nonsense. But few will be so politically incorrect as to point it out.

Even social justice warriors are turning a blind eye to real-life Africa. Black Lives Matter claims to have a “Black Lives Matter Global Network,” calls itself “part of the global Black family,” and asserts its commitment to “liberation for all Black people.”

So how about the black people of Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and the many other African lands who are right now facing slaughter and enslavement at the hands of self-proclaimed jihadists? Do their lives matter? If not, why not? And if they do, why not talk about them once in a while?

• Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for the Washington Times.

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Given that BLM was founded on a false narrative that an unrepentant “American black” criminal who reaped the “occupational hazards” of his crimes was “unjustly gunned down” (which a jury of six was wise enough to see through — albeit I don’t know if they saw that the judge and prosecutor had been bribed to railroad the case) in 2012, and only ever concerned itself with clones thereof…it’s quite safe to say that it will concern itself with African-black lives about 500 years after all African-black “leaders” of its ideal model (which means those such as Mugabe, 0dinga, Amin, …) do (note that at least one on the list is dead, and was unrepentant to that point).

The entire African continent is a reflective paradigm for the Black ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago, than the prosperous white neighboring County of Dupage, and just Like Black neighborhoods In Chicago, Africa has historically depopulated and economically depleted itself. When you consider that Africa supposedly was the anthropological cradle of human civilization, and expected to have thus created the most human potential, can someone explain why Africa has only 14.82 % of the world population, while America which wasn’t really settled until the 1400s is 5%, and Asia which was settled by Humans much, much later than Africa is 60.39%. It certainly wasn’t for lack of its procreating, but its plethora and penchant for murder, economic failure and starvation. Forget DWB (Driving while Black, or the Black lives matter non-sense). “Living Like African” seems to be a much more dangerous and depopulating lifestyle if you are human. “Living Like American” has been a blessing for the Black Africans lucky enough to make it over. The Black population during the Civil War in 1860 in the USA was about 3.9 million and has blossomed to about 47 million in 2016. Apparently black lives HAVE mattered a lot more to White controlled America than Black dominated Africa. Embracing your African Side like Obama did over your American side will just leave you the same kind of failure Obama turned out to be.

Not just that, but over the many decades, cause of all the wealth some countries are sitting on, they’ve had MORE violence, and bloodshed than ANY Settled land to my knowledge.. EVEN the # of dead in WW1, doesn’t approach the total loss of life in all the regional spats Africa’s has had since the 50s..

Muslims like to recruit black people, or just kill them if they don’t convert. Let’s not forget it was the MUSLIMS who sold their own countrymen to the westerners as slaves. Slavery in the USA can be traced right back to Islam. It’s not a twisty road either; it’s a straight line. Blacks in America were literally sold out by Muslims in Africa.

I know a lot of black Christians. They would most likely have been slaughtered if they lived in Africa. Muslims hate Christians and Jews, and then they hate everyone else to lesser degrees. But make no mistake – Islam is all about the hate. It’s not a loving religion.

So called ‘African-American’ blacks don’t care about Africa or African blacks in any way…except maybe to dress up in some African garb for some African event or otherwise.. They don’t care about African politics, they don’t care about life in Africa, they are just glad (to themselves) that they aren’t in Africa now and have no intention of going there…..afterall, what is in Africa for them..?..not much…really, next to nothing… Most African governments are bogus self-aggrandizing schemes that are set up to reward the rulers and their cronies with the people subjugated and killed…with the national treasury looted – sent off to personal bank accounts in far-off lands… And, oh, now they’re confiscating land and homes in South Africa….who would want to go there to do anything constructive..?!! Africa is a pit and American blacks don’t want anything to do with it. And, hey..!!..black lives don’t matter in America with millions of them being aborted and the Democrats applaud..!!

I couldn’t see any black man, or any white man for that matter, wanting to move to Africa. It’s too chaotic for anyone. It’s unsafe. The countries are all completely mismanaged. There is insane disease rampant all over the place. And of course unopposed Muslims killing people.